For the second time, CSH hosts a journalist through the European Research Council’s science journalism initiative.
US-American journalist Elise Cutts is one of seven fellows selected for the third round of the European Research Council (ERC) science journalism program.
From February to June 2026, she will spend four months at CSH investigating how researchers develop fundamental theories of complex systems — efforts aimed at deepening our understanding of biological evolution, economic innovation, and social change.
“I’m interested in learning how scientists develop new fundamental theories that address the deepest questions in complexity research: How do parts assemble into wholes? How does information flow through life and society? How does novelty emerge, from the gene pool to the marketplace of ideas?,” says Cutts.
Cutts will work closely with Eddie Lee and other members of CSH’s Foundations of Complex Systems group, including CSH president Stefan Thurner, Rudolf Hanel, Jan Korbel, and Niraj Kushwaha.
"Elise is a brilliant and energetic journalist who brings thoughtfulness, genuine curiosity, and excitement to writing about fundamental work. This is exactly the kind of work that is broadly important but whose relevance is challenging to convey, which makes it all the more auspicious to host her at CSH"
About Elise Cutts
Elise Cutts is a US-American freelance science journalist based in Graz, Austria. Her news and feature writing on themes of emergence, scale, and complexity appear in Quanta, Scientific American, Science News, New Scientist, and other magazines. She also writes a blog called Reviewer, too about open questions at the frontiers of science.
Supporting Science Communication
This marks the second time CSH has been selected to host a FRONTIERS fellow, reflecting CSH’s commitment to bridging cutting-edge research and public understanding. The list of selected journalists has been announced in November.
The prestigious ERC program provides science journalists with the opportunity to spend three to five months in residency at top European research institutions, collaborating with researchers on innovative journalistic projects. The third round was open only to early-career science journalists, and 31 applications were received from journalists of 20 nationalities. The other FRONTIERS fellows will be hosted in institutions in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Spain.
Last year, data journalist Will Grimond completed a five-month residency at CSH, where he investigated the concept of fairness in artificial intelligence alongside Fariba Karimi’s research group.
About FRONTIERS
FRONTIERS is the science journalism initiative funded by the European Research Council in 2023. The project allows science journalists to cover frontier science topics within research institutions, ensuring journalistic independence. FRONTIERS aims to tackle some of the challenges of science journalism, including the deteriorating employment conditions and resources available for science journalists.
